What Are the Effects of Marijuana Criminalization?

A decade ago, there was not a single state where it was legal to use recreational marijuana. Today, nearly half of Americans live in states where pot is now legal. And many more are in states where medical marijuana has been legalized. But the federal government maintains that the drug has no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. How do we make sense of that? Our nation’s laws about marijuana are remarkably inconsistent. What are the effects of marijuana criminalization? And who gets caught in the middle? On this podcast episode, we talk to a man wrongly imprisoned for marijuana charges, a cannabis criminal justice reform advocate, a primary care doctor who’s been prescribing medical cannabis for years, and a drug historian to explains why the origin of our nation’s patchwork of marijuana laws. Podcast Guests: Donte West, Legacy Fellow at Last Prisoner Project Natalie Papillion, COO at Last Prisoner Project Peter Grinspoon, primary care doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, instructor at Harvard Medical School, author of “Seeing Through the Smoke: A Cannabis Specialist Untangles the Truth about Marijuana” Emily Dufton, author of “Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America” **This episode is part of Season 3 on Top of Mind: Finding Fairness. From health and immigration to prisons and pot, how can we get more peace and prosperity for all?